The Cemetery – Blu-ray Review

If you take anything away from The Cemetery, let it be this – DO NOT SPEND THE NIGHT IN A CEMETERY. I’m not sure who would possibly consider this a good idea, but if you spend the night with the dead, you’re probably going to end up joining them permanently. For those of us who are smart enough to stay away, The Cemetery from Massacre Video lets us bask in the blood and gore of those who opt in for such adventures.

The Movie (2.5/5)

In the wooded hills of Pennsylvania, a group of paranormal investigators set off to spend the evening in a cemetery for those who had been exorcised by the church in the 1670s.

This group of twenty-somethings has a healthy amount of skepticism about the paranormal. Nonetheless, they set out to camp overnight, with cameras set up in the hopes of glimpsing some ghostly activity. Boy, do they find what they are looking for after an accident spills some blood in the forest and awakens the demons.

In this mythos, the demons of the past feed on the sins of the living, ultimately possessing their victims. Fortunately for these demons, everyone in this group is a horrible human being. In fact, one setback of the film (apart from the almost comically bad acting in some scenes) is that none of the characters are easy to bond with. You almost root for the demon as it begins brutally killing these people. From overt sexism to cheating, some of these characters really deserved to die.

That is not to say that this isn’t a fun gory ride. In fact, as the demon takes it’s victims one by one, you will likely find yourself cheering along as the blood spills. The gore is fantastically done, and the soundtrack features some heavy metal goodness that adds a certain style to the film.

In the end, The Cemetery is a great slasher film with some very satisfying kills, and no shortage of bloodletting. It is definitely worth watching when you want some hacking and slashing with some very creepy looking demons.

The Picture 4/5

One would expect that a lower budget hack and slash would probably just look ok on blu-ray – nothing special. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how good this film looked. From the crisp, clear detail and color of the forest, to the deep, dark bloody gore scenes, everything looked great in this transfer. Some of the special effects (adding static to images, or various filters used to give different perspectives) were obvious and a little jarring, but not too bad. Overall, this one looks quite good.

The Sound 4.5/5

As I mentioned earlier, the soundtrack makes this movie stand out. Instead of taking itself too seriously, it features heavy metal during certain action scenes that just make it fun to watch. The mixing is handled very well, and the sound effects and soundtrack never get in the way of the dialog.

Oh, and if you listen closely, you will hear that the narrator sounds very similar to Kylo Ren. So there’s that too.

The Features & Packaging 4.5/5

This four disc set (yes, FOUR discs) features the movie and special features on blu-ray, two DVDs (one with the feature, and one with features), and the soundtrack on CD, all featuring attractive art on the discs. The case itself is very sturdy and fits the discs nicely, and has a two sided art for the sleeve that has a hand written number out of the 1000 in print. This is a really nice touch, and I would love to see other distributors doing this. A limited edition with a set printing run feels so much more valuable when you know what number you have. I applaud Massacre Video for this inclusion.

For features, there is a slew of awesome goodies here, including two commentaries (one exclusive to this blu-ray printing), a full on two hour Making of Documentary, a short film titled M Is for Memoirs, behind the scenes stills gallery, and some trailers. All in all, there is a ton of extra content for those looking for more.

The Verdict 3.5/5

While The Cemetery is likely not going to appeal to big budget blockbuster horror fans, it is a fun hack and slash movie that I believe has enough style to stand out, and has some fantastic blood and gore. You just might have to deal with a group of characters that you won’t care a lot about (along with some bad acting) as you build up to the killing spree.

Also, the fact that such obvious care went into putting this release together, with the extra special features and BD/DVD/CD format in a limited print run, this is a no brainer for collector’s.

You can purchase a copy of The Cemetery directly from Massacre Video here.

The Cemetery – Blu-ray Review was last modified: January 28th, 2017 by Dusty Stokes

Life long gamer and all around nerd, Dusty "DustimusPrime" Stokes started up the site to teach himself the finer parts of making a website. It's since turned into so much more than that, and he couldn't be more happy.

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